12/19 - 12/26 Golden Princess Review

[Tess2mommies]

The Travelers

 

Myself – Malaisha – Early 20 something, first time cruiser

My Significant Other (SO) – Valencia – Early 20 something, second time cruiser, first time on princess.

 

The Trip

 

7 Day Golden Princess December 19th – 26th Southern Caribbean Explorer

Followed by 5 days 4 nights in San Juan Puerto Rico

 

The long review – Sorry I’m new at this bear with me.

 

I went into this trip with a lot of expectations after reading the cruise critic boards and hearing so much about this wonderful ship.

 

Were my expectations met? Will I cruise again? Did I have fun? I’ll answer those questions later.

[Tess2mommies]

Our journey began Saturday December 18th, 2004. We took the Bart (it’s like a subway in the san Francisco bay area) from Walnut Creek, CA to the San Francisco international airport. Our flight was to leave at 10:55 PM, due to some last minute unexpected events we arrived at the airport 55 minutes prior to departure.

 

We flew US Airways on a red eye flight and I didn’t get a lick of sleep. We booked red eye for two reasons, one, we had finals on Saturday and two, so we could sleep. Our flight arrived in Philadelphia late, upon exiting the plane; we grabbed our carry on luggage, 2 pieces each and ran to the next gate. Mind you, we had 6 minutes to connect before the flight was taking off and the gate was way at the other end of the airport. When we arrived at the gate they were closing the doors we said wait, and they waited and we got on the flight.

 

We expected our luggage to be in the next flight because if we barely made the flight, it’s no way our luggage made it. So, the saga begins. We arrive in San Juan at the baggage claim area and we have no luggage. No big deal the next flight came in 45 minutes so we waited. Still no luggage, another flight comes, we received one piece of luggage. I guess now is a good time to tell you how much luggage we had. 8 pieces in all 4 carry on and 4 checked. So we got one piece of luggage and we were missing three, we talk to the baggage people represented US Airways and they said it would be in the next flight. All, in all, we waiting at the airport for 9 hours hoping to get our luggage, we got all luggage except 1. My partner’s luggage, she had a really big suitcase, I crossed packed our luggage but she decided she wanted the entire suitcase to herself. Another piece of luggage we got back was ruined to the extreme, I figured I wouldn’t need duct tape, but boy ole boy did I wish I bought some.

 

After waiting 9 hours in the airport and being told the next flight won’t come in until after 10:30 pm we took a taxi to the pan American pier to get on our Golden Princess. We arrived at the pier checked in our luggage, including our formal wear checked in at the embarkation desk, there were 2 people ahead of us and went on about our journey.

 

There wasn’t really any excitement upon boarding the ship because we’d be flying all night and morning and spent all the hours in the baggage claim area starving. We weren’t allowed to leave the baggage claim area because once you leave you can’t get back in.

 

So, we got on the ship, got our picture taken and went on our little adventure to find our room. Gosh, this ship is enormous, how am I supposed to navigate around this thing, we’ll never find our room. So, we stop and ask do you know where Plaza 521 is. This guy said oh you are one of mine and takes us to our room, we open the door and our beds are apart. I asked our room steward Nilo from the Philippines if he could put our beds together. He looks at us and says no I cannot, was this because we are two women? I asked why not? He simply said there is no more linen for a queen bed anywhere on the ship, I thought that was kind of hard to believe but I said okay. My partner looks under the bed and sees bed linen for a queen bed, so she leaves the room on a quest to find Nilo and says we found linen and he said okay, I will do your bed together as a queen in two days, as I am very busy. Then she said well, will you just put the beds together and we’ll just sleep together with separate linen, he gives us a weird looks and said okay, I will do.

 

My partner came back to the room and cried because she didn’t have her luggage. I said I know you’re sad but you are on a cruise, don’t ruin it for yourself, she didn’t want to hear anything I had to say. We grabbed our life vest had muster, it went well. Afterwards we were starving so we went to Berini’s and had dinner. I think I are prime rib and my partner ordered something but didn’t like it and didn’t see anything interesting on the menu and asked for a children’s menu but the waiter was like you are an adult and she said I know but I would like to see the children’s menu, by the time he finally bought it the kitchen was closed. I ordered desert, two pieces actually, a piece of cheese cake, which was okay, it’s better at the cheesecake factory and honeydew melon sorbet, which I fell in love with and if anyone knows how to make it please let me know.

 

After dinner, we went to the pursers desk to ask about missing luggage and filled out the appropriate papers and then we went back to our room and our luggage, the pieces we arrived with was at our door, all but one, so we went back to the pursers desk to say a piece of luggage was missing, The man that was helping us, Carlos said didn’t you just fill out paper work for that, we said that was for the airline but this is one for this ship. We went back to our ship it was right about sail away time, I looked out the window it was really awesome, it was the coolest thing ever, we went past the Royal Caribbean’s ship, or maybe it was carnival’s ship and then we stayed even next to the other ship, I think it was to show off that the golden was better. Then we reversed and went on our way. I think I looked out the window for an hour. I got dressed in my PJ’s and off to bed I went.

 

We missed our meet and mingle because we were starving, I’d been looking forward to meet everyone from the roll call for the longest time, but when a girls gotta eat, a girls got to eat.

[Tess2mommies]

Rise and shine, I woke up and we were some place new. St. Thomas to be exact, we ordered breakfast through room service, we ate a Danish and took our showers, boy are those bathrooms small, in fact our entire room was smaller, I heard they were small but not that small, no big deal. Anyway, we got dressed, had to figure out how to get off the ship, which we later found out to be called the gangway. You ask where the gangway is silly, not how to get off the ship! We stayed in the local shopping area of St. Thomas for most of the morning, since my partners luggage was lost, which held our swim gear. I.e. Goggles, swimsuits, shows… we had to go and buy new swim suits; we had a scuba diving excursion and had nothing to wear. We found this little swim shop that wasn’t too expensive and off to a little shopping adventure we went. It was difficult to find new swimsuits, I’m a size 2 and my partner is like a size 18. I found a top of a bikini really easily, but looking for bottoms was hard, I found one is a size 6 and it had a really narrow bottom but that’s all they had so I had to get it. My partner doesn’t feel confident to wear two pieces but they wanted $90 for a one piece so I talked her into getting a tankini. We bought all kinds of stuff in St. Thomas and they had excelled prices on jewelry, we bought a necklace for Valencia’s stepmother. We went back to the ship to get beach towels and left the ship to head off to our excursion, we went scuba diving in Coki beach, it was a nice little drive there, we saw lots of local people and school children on the road, I thought it was cool. People there drive crazy, we saw someone get into a car accident which is a given provided the number of streetlights and stop signs we saw. We arrived at Coki beach was given our diving lesson and now it was time to get our gear, no wet suits, just a vest, tank goggles and the works. Everyone got weight belts, everyone but me. I felt left out, they told me to hold my weights for a while, I asked why don’t I need a weight belt, he said I was too skinny, he can just put it in my vest, I said oh, I heard the belts were uncomfortable, so lucky me. We got in the water, learned to breath and what not and went on an exploration for fish. My partner can’t swim, which is why I don’t understand why she wanted to scuba dive, she figured, with oxygen it’s no way she could drown, but after going a little while she chickened out but told me to stay with the group and scuba. I scuba dived for a while and after a certain depth my ears couldn’t handle it. I have lots of trouble on planes too, but I did enjoy scuba diving and next time I’ll talk to the doctor about working on my ears. We laid on the beach for a little while and there was this local man selling cocktails, he was very animated, we enjoyed him and his marketing tactics. We got back in the van and went back to the ship and it was goodbye St. Thomas.

 

I enjoyed St. Thomas, and I would love to go there again, on a cruise stop and on land. One day, I’m young and I have lots of traveling ahead of me.

 

We ate lunch on the ship, dinner, looked around a little, took a nap. The sun really makes you tired, and the humidity does wonders to your hair. My hair was not manageable the entire trip. Later that evening we saw a magic illusions show and we enjoyed it, I was really tired to figure out how they did all that, and I though it was really cool.

 

I liked the ship a lot and I liked our forward ocean view cabin, I really enjoyed being rocked to sleep and from now on I will try and book a forward ocean view cabin and one day a forward or aft balcony.

 

The food on the ship was pretty good so far and room service was cool also, but they need more selections on the menu, I ordered a chocolate fudge cake from room service and it was very dry, I thought it was just that once, but I ordered the cake 4 times on different days and it was dry every time. I had the best hot dogs I’ve ever had my entire life on this cruise, but the pizza was not so good, it was flavorless, it was missing something.

 

We went to the purser’s desk again to ask if they found our luggage and they didn’t, so Valencia cried again but she had no clothes. Now you are probably wondering, how did you have 7 pieces of luggage and have your partner not have any luggage. Well, one bad was filled with electronics (laptop, camcorder, digital camera, ipod, gameboy and other misc electronics) another bag had important documents, cruise tickets and information like that, snacks to eat on the plane, another bag had stuff to do our hair, make up… the small carryon had night clothes, underwear (about 100 pieces of underwear in total) and a change of outfits for myself and although I did get my SO to pack a change of clothes in the carry on she packed jeans. Another bad was the garment bag, then there was my luggage with my clothes and another with shoes, there was a hygiene bag and then my partner’s luggage.

 

The purser offered Valencia $100 shipboard credit to buy something to wear and free rush laundry. Our room steward never came before 9 am so we couldn’t get same day and she really needed same day. She bought a polo shirt, a pair of shorts and slacks from the store with her credit.

 

Dinner was okay, I ordered shrimp cocktail as an appetizer and it was really good and I don’t remember what I ordered, but for dessert, I got lemon sorbet, I asked if they had anymore honeydew melon sorbet but the waiter said if it’s not eaten that night they throw it away.

[Tess2mommies]

The next day we woke up in St. Kitts we arrived pretty early so I set the alarm clock, didn’t want to over sleep. We left the ship and walked on over to meet up with our excursion group, we waited a while for everyone to gather around, we introduced ourselves to one another and took our bus ride way up the mountain and arrived at the place for our ATV excursion. We all got a pair of sunglasses and a helmet and then we were told how to turn on the ATV, change gears and drive. One by one everyone tried to drive the ATV, a British woman had trouble, everyone else was pretty good. I tried it, I did not like driving it, I didn’t feel comfortable driving it, well I was fine driving it, it was more of a steering problem, you had to over steer the ATV and I thought that was weird and saying that I’m accident prone, I asked if I could ride with my SO and the British lady rode with her husband. The guides said it’s difficult to have a passenger and that we could ride with the guides. So that’s what I do as well as the other lady.

 

Early on Valencia was driving her ATV and was having problems, initially the guide thought it was her, but later, he found the tire to be flat and drove her ATV back to the house and got another ATV, we waited out with the other ATV, upon the guides arrival, we had to catch back up with the rest of the group and we did. It was really fun, scary at the same time. There were a lot of muddy areas and people kept getting stuck. We were almost attacked by a bull, but all cows, bulls and dogs are tied down on a leash in what I call the middle of nowhere. It was really odd to see a cow and bull on a leash, at least the group we were with thought it was. We saw lots of animals like goats and roosters. Call me clueless but me and this Canadian woman called the rooster a chicken and the goat, well, I’ll just say I never saw a straight haired goat before but the Canadian thought it was an Antelope, everyone got a kick out of us not knowing. I think I need to take a visit to the zoo again. Throughout the excursion we kept going higher and higher into the mountains, in my words I said we went through the jungle into the rainforest and back to civilization again. There was one area when we were in the “rainforest” and there was this huge ditch and the guide said everyone lean very far left or you will fall and get injured, it was so scary and I was with a guide. I was thinking to my self, if I had driven the ATV myself after I saw that ditch and the risk of getting injured I would have quit and demanded to ride with someone else. We went though even more mud and we got back on local roads and the local children waved at us and smiled, they seemed very excited to see us. I waved a smiled back and so did a few other people in the group. While in the rainforest a spider was on my guides back, now, I’m very allergic to spiders, all spiders so when I saw the spider I hit it, mind you it was on the guides back, he looked at my like why did you do that, I simply said, there was a spider on your back, he said thank you and laughed, it’s just a spider, no harm. We got back to the house, parked our ATV’s, we were so dirty, I hate being dirty, I’m such a girlie girl and I was just filthy, I wish I had baby wipes to clean myself up. They offered us drinks, I got an orange soda, it was very good, and I was so thirsty. Then the guide gave us a tour of the house, he lived in half and the other half he called a museum, it was awesome and I took pictures. After that, we went back to where the ship was and shopped in the local stores.

 

The local stores in St. Kitts were pretty interesting. They had outside vendors and a mall like area, we browsed around, it seems like all the vendors set their price so you couldn’t shop around looking for a cheaper price. Valencia saw a hat she liked somewhere and the lady said one prices, then we left and we came back and then said a high price and Valencia said 15 minutes ago you said this price and she said you lie, I didn’t say such a thing, Valencia was angry that she was lied to and although she liked the hat she wasn’t going to purchase anything from “the liar”. We looked at some local paintings. We saw one that we liked he said one price and I said a lower price and we said no and walked away and then he said come back I’ll work out a deal with you, it was still too high so we walked away again and then he said okay, okay, what do you want to pay, we told him and he said fine. When then ventured off to the mall area, a lot of locals were in the shopping area, we went in a few stores and then into a clothing store, I thought it was expensive but Valencia wanted to look anyway. After a while I didn’t feel comfortable in the store and wanted to leave. Valencia was upset because she wanted to shop there because she didn’t have any clothes and I wasn’t being understanding, I said fine you can shop but I don’t feel safe in here and I’m going back to the ship, she was angry for a while but we went back to the ship.

 

We headed back to our room to get cleaned up and we opened the door and Valencia’s luggage was there. I saw it first and I said guess what your luggage is here and she saw it and started crying tears of happiness. She’d bought a brand new wardrobe and it was all in the luggage along with my Christmas gift.

 

We cleaned up, got dressed and had lunch, took a nap got up and went on about our day. I’ve never taken naps in my life, with the exception of my pre toddler years until this trip; it’s amazing how much the sun can drain your energy.

 

The next day we were in Grenada, we finally woke up and took the tender to the island. The tender ride was pretty cool; I got a really good picture of the ship from the tender. We arrived on the Island, took our picture and headed off; we looked around and went shopping for stuff. We didn’t buy any spices, I cook at home, but I didn’t feel the need to buy those spices, I’m sure they are better than the ones I have at home, but I took a rain check, we were walking around and there was a lot of traffic on the streets all of a sudden it started raining, and then we were heading back to the ship as we’d walked a pretty far distance and then it was sunny again, so we continued shopping. We were going to go to Grand Anse beach but the people were very aggressive and Valencia decided she wanted to go on the boat, so we took the Tender back and right when we got on the Tender is started raining again and it was pouring pretty hard and we were wet head to toe by the time we got back to the ship. We went and changed clothes and had lunch, this was our first time eating with someone. We had a nice little conversation, but Valencia said she prefers us to have a table to ourselves.

 

I think formal night was the night before or maybe the night we stopped in Grenada, I’m not really sure. Well, the day of Formal night I open our garment bag and guess what I found… I found our hygiene bag, some idiot stuck our hygiene bag in our garment bag and all of our gowns were red. When I saw red gowns I was p*ssed off because 2 of the gowns were new with price tags still on them and they weren’t cheap. The price spent on two of the dresses was enough to cover one of our cruise fares, and I’ll leave it at that. So, we call the pursers desk and explain that we found the bag and now our dresses were ruined, but they couldn’t be laundered the same day but to send them in anyway and that was that. No way was I going to make an appearance on Formal night in something not formal! So, we went to the restaurant grabbed a menu from the Maiter D and then when back to our room and ordered dinner through room service off the restaurant menu. We didn’t leave our room that night because we were too ashamed to be seen in something not formal, so we had a lovely evening in the room.

[Tess2mommies]

The next stop was Isla Margarita. People were trying to get us to go on tours and go shopping in portamar but we wanted to look around first, we went on a major shopping spree there and Valencia bought her students where she teaches a wrist band that said Venezuela, she works with a lot of Latino kids so they would appreciate that. Once we finally finished shopping we wanted to go to Portamar but we didn’t have time so back on the ship we went, we’d love to go there again in the near future. By the way, we were originally supposed to go to Caracas but they harbor master and the captain couldn’t agree or something, they left a note like the first night and informed us we wouldn’t be going.

 

Our last stop was to Aruba. I kept telling Valencia to stop spending so much money because there was lots of shopping to be done in Aruba. Aruba was awesome, we went shopping and bought lots of stuff, we had a local artist paint us a really awesome picture and we picked the colors to match our furniture, it was really cool, and then we went to explore, we went to the mall, looked at hotels, I gambled in the penny slots and I lost about $3.50, we walked around some more and ate. Then we were walking around and was looking for a short cut to the ship, it was really hot and we didn’t want to go the way we came because that was over a mile of walking, so we went on this long path and it was no short cut so we kept walking and saw all kinds of lizards and iguanas, I’ve never seen an iguana in it’s natural setting, so it was very cool to us and we took lots of pictures and then we headed back towards to ship. We found another shopping area, bought more stuff and went back on ship to eat again. We changed clothes, hung around the ship, laid on the lounge chairs and did all kinds of stuff, including playing ping-pong.

 

It was formal night again, they got our dresses cleaned, well, all but one, but it was the older one so I didn’t care as much, and we filed a claim. We took a nap and then we got ourselves ready, did our hair and stuff and went to take formal pictures. I thought we missed dinner because by the time we got there it was 10:30. The ships doctor made an announcement that anyone O negative with a blood donor card should come donate blood. I left dinner and went to the room the check what my blood type was, I knew I was O something, I was O positive so I couldn’t donate, I was a little disappointed that I couldn’t help, but I’m sure someone was able to give blood. We continued with dinner, we had excelled lobster tails, they were so yummy, I wanted to order another set but the kitchen closed so I couldn’t L . After dinner I don’t remember what we did, I think we went back to the room and after that it was a mystery.

 

The next morning was Christmas day and it was a sea day. Can you believe our cruise is coming to an end? We watched TV in the room for a while, then we ate breakfast, came back to the room, exchanged Christmas gifts, Valencia bought me a diamond ring, I asked her jokingly if she wished she’d bought it St. Thomas, since it was a lot cheaper. Hehe. We hung out around the ship, the aft area, we played more ping-pong and just enjoyed our last day. The Captain made an announcement that the passenger that needed blood was in critical condition and that we would arrive in San Juan early, but we couldn’t disembark. Now I wouldn’t get to be rocked to sleep one last night, but I understood why. The ship was going to fast and the water was pretty rough because we were rocking a lot that night and a lot of people didn’t feel so good, including Valencia and I.

 

Later that evening we went back to our room and packed our stuff to put outside of the door. While we were packing a fellow cruise critic member said hello, sorry she missed us at the meet and greet, she was late, seems like everyone was. She said she wished we were able to meet and she wanted me to meet her two sons, they are doctors and I want to be brain surgeon so it would have been cool. I said I would meet them in a few hours but she said not to worry about it and she just wanted to meet the people she spoke with on the boards and that she’d left a message on Doreen’s mail box but was unable to catch up with her and that Doreen hadn’t left her a message.

 

The next morning, we had breakfast, went to the purser’s desk for the last time and took pictures around the ship. We didn’t disembark until 11:15 AM, we were kicked out of our room and told to wait somewhere else, aww, our cruise was over.

 

Disembarkation was simple and very quick; we caught a cab to our hotel.

[Tess2mommies]

Personal choice dining – We enjoyed personal choice dining. We are when and where we wanted to. Initially I was upset that I wasn’t having traditional dining on my first cruise and that’s what I wanted so badly, but I liked doing things on my time. Sometimes we were seated right away and other times a wait of 30 minutes, but we ventured around, so it was no big deal. We always had a table for two. We had Nina from Romania as a waiter twice, she was great! I ordered a sorbet for dessert every night and ordered 2 shrimp cocktails as an appetizer every night was well, Valencia ordered the same, she ate her shrimp cocktails so quickly Nina said do you want another, I’ll bring you another, don’t be shy, order what you like. But Valencia said no thank you. Nina was very nice and if you have the opportunity eat with Nina.

 

 

Clothes – I packed a lot of clothes. At least 40 outfits, I changed 3 times a day, I liked having options, however, there was still a lot that I didn’t wear and I’m not packing that much again, but still a lot. Maybe I’ll cut down on the shoes, I packed 10 pair and wore about 5.

 

 

Nilo the room steward – Nilo made me 2 towel animals, I requested them, I heard about them over on the carnival board, I never plan to sail carnival from what I’ve heard, but I had to see what the towel animals were all about and I thought it was pretty darn cool. I took pictures. Nilo made a big deal about putting our beds together; he never came before 9 am so he never took our laundry. Valencia’s step mom bought her a new watch to wear on formal night, the watch never left the room, it was in the safe and then she took it out to sit next to her earrings so she would remember to wear it and we left the room to get something and Nilo came to clean the room and when we got back the watch was missing, never left the room. Valencia blames Nilo, she paged him and he called back and she asked if he’d seen it around the room. He stopped by the room and said no I haven’t seen it but you can file a formal complaint against me and rolled his eyes and walked away.

 

 

Shows- we went to see the magic illusion show and loved it. Caribbean Caliente and thought it was cheesy, so what the country show. Valencia said the shows are Carnival were better, I’m sure princess has some good shows, just maybe not that week, or that entertain cruise. It didn’t make or break the cruise, so it was no big deal. From reading the boards we knew in advance to come early for seats and we got seats to shows with no problem.

 

 

Doing all the activities – There was so much to do on this ship, I don’t know how everyone can possibly do everything, and we were so tired. I wanted to go the gym but never made my way to it, I also didn’t see any of the night clubs, I’ve never gone clubbing before so I feel I didn’t miss anything, but I plan to check it out on my next cruise.

 

Lounge Chairs- In my opinion it was easy to get a lounge chair any time of the day. It was a little crowded in the aft pool area but I still saw a few open seats.

 

 

Children on the ship – There were a good number of children on this ship. I almost got knocked over by a few unruly children a few times. However some of the children were well behaved and Valencia played ping-pong with them. We saw children in the Jacuzzi and we saw children in the pool with diapers. The main pools were pretty much taken over by children. One day we encounter a group of children playing football and volleyball in the hallway and I was almost hit by a ball in heels, if I’d been hit and had fallen I would have been on a mad hunt for the parents. But again, there were some well behaved children on the ship as well. We ran into a grandmother and her grandson in the atrium elevator, he was very pleasant, he asked what floor you wanted to go to and took you there. He was kind and they were on the elevator for hours and grandmother and grandson were having a pleasant time.

 

Ryan the Purser – We saw him one night to talk about Valencia’s watch missing and he said to look in the room again and if not come back to the desk the next morning which was disembarkation date to file a final complaint, we also had to have him adjust our bill because we’d be charged for laundry of our gowns and it was supposed to be free. While we were waiting, Valencia and I were talking about the crew and drinking and she said they weren’t allowed to drink and I said they were and she didn’t believe me so she asked Ryan and he said they could drink and he said he had lots of drinks that evening, and he looked drunk, nor horrible drunk but drunk nonetheless. He asked us to stay at the desk with him because he didn’t want to deal with any other passengers. The next morning we went to the Pursers desk and waited for Ryan so we let 4 people ahead of us so we could get Ryan. This woman thought I had a crush on Ryan and was going up there to take his picture, so she said I have got to get a look at this Ryan person, she was really funny. We finally got Ryan and he said it was too late to file a complaint because our luggage was off the ship, but we followed his instructions. He was very rude to us and Valencia has now put Ryan on her “Hate” list.

 

 

 

Over all experience- Overall, I enjoyed my first cruise and will be sailing princess again. We booked two open bookings and now we are trying to figure out where we will go. Valencia is very interested in the 18 day cruise to Brazil on the Regal Princess next December as she liked the Latin culture, but we are still deciding. I consider myself addicted to cruising now and I was through cruise withdrawal after leaving the ship. I will be writing princess a complaint letter for the gown problem, Ryan and the missing watch but all in all even with the missing luggage we had fun and it was good for our relationship and putting us closer together.

 

 

 

I'll post a review of San Juan soon, i'll try not to make it as long! I'll also give a link to the pictures we took.

[cynbar]

Thanks for your review with all the details --- it really made me feel as if I had been there, cruising with you!!!

[CruiseFever]

Thanks so much for providing all the details of your experience. We had a similar experience on the Golden that resulted in future bookings for us also.

[crisp1]

Icebrat, enjoyed your review. Sorry you had such problems with your luggage. Why we're going the day before ( I know you couldn't due to exams) Hope your stay in San Juan was enjoyable. I'm looking forward to my 'Golden'

[Tess2mommies]

Icebrat, enjoyed your review. Sorry you had such problems with your luggage. Why we're going the day before ( I know you couldn't due to exams) Hope your stay in San Juan was enjoyable. I'm looking forward to my 'Golden'

 

 

Crisp,

 

I am sure you will love your 'Golden' it was awesome. I'm try to get a review on San Juan posted sometime early tomorrow.

 

Next cruise we are flying in 2 days early, we met a couple in the airport who's travel agent recommended flying in a few days early, they flew in 3 days early and after 3 days their luggage was still lost and it was their honeymoon, they were so unhappy about the lost luggage.

 

One tip of advice. Don't use the phone in your stateroom. My SO used it for about 25 minutes the whole cruise and that bill was not nice at all!

 

Happy Cruising :cool:

[cruising cat]

Icebrat

 

Read your review with interest as we are sailing on the Golden on Sunday. Thank you for taking the time to share your cruise with us.

 

I just hope I'd be as tolerant as you were in simmilar circumstances!

 

See ya later

 

Jayne

[Tess2mommies]

Here is a link for some of the pictures i've uploaded so far. I haven't done any scanning as of yet, I have all the patters and menus from both Formal nights and a few other things.

 

I hope this link works http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeANXLVqzcMW7mI

[cruising cat]

Icebrat

 

Thanks for the photos, now I am really excited about our trip!

 

See ya later

 

Jayne

[DoreenD]

Malaisha,

I can't believe all that you two went through! I was really bummed that we didn't get to meet. . .it's amazing that we were all on the same cruise and never bumped into each other. It was more difficult to try to find others from our roll call due to plans with my parents. We pretty much were booked with excursions with them each day and then dinner and shows. I've been very sick for the past week, but I intend to post a review this weekend. You'll see how different our experiences were! I'm glad that you didn't let any of the "disappointments" ruin your cruise. I looked at some of your photos and expected to say "hey, I saw them on the ship. . ." but I don't think that I did. . .

[Coral]

Thanks for the review.

 

First - no one can make cheesecake as good as the Cheesecake Factory :)

 

Glad your luggage finally caught up with you. I can't believe you spent 9 hours at the airport waiting for your luggage - what a pain!

[mmsoko]

Which nights were formal nights?

[DoreenD]

The night we were in St Kitts Tuesday, 12/21 and Christmas Eve (Aruba) 12/24.

[Tess2mommies]

The night we were in St Kitts Tuesday, 12/21 and Christmas Eve (Aruba) 12/24.

 

Doreen,

 

I hope you feel better soon.

 

I kept talking to different people on the trip and a lot of them were from Michigan, I kept asking myself, I wonder if that's Doreen. I went looking for your room, but I forgot your room number and quite a few people had door decorations.

 

Sorry I missed ya

 

I can't wait to read your review and see pictures.

[booboo4031]

For the St. Kitts ATV trip ... Did they require long pants or special footwear?? I'm doing that cruise in April and I want to do that excursion...

 

Thanks